Atiku Hails Fuel Subsidy Removal

A former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar commended the Federal Government for ending the regime on subsidy for imported petroleum products,

ruing the opportunity the government had to implement the policy while the economy was stronger.

In a series of tweets on Friday, June 5, 2020,

Atiku Hails Fuel Subsidy Removal

Stating it was the same policy for which he was demonized during the 2019 presidential election.

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“FG finally withdraws from the fuel subsidy and price-fixing bazaar that had been rife with corruption and stalling investments.

This is something patriots have been calling for and for which I was demonised.

“The stoppage of subsidy and price-fixing is the right move,

although it should have come earlier when the economy was stronger,” Atiku said.

The former presidential candidate of Nigeria’s leading opposition party the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),

urged the government at state and federal levels to improve on the policy by removing other impediments

and rolling out incentives to boost investments in the sector.

“FG and state governments should proceed to remove other impediments and roll out incentives to spur investments in the sector,

especially the numerous refineries that had been licensed but are yet to be built.

Then ensure the quality of fuel meets set standards.” Atiku added.

In his policy document which was released in the build-up to the February 23, 2019 elections,

under the heading “Promoting Public-Private Partnerships” Atiku had said if elected president,

his policy for the oil sector would include to

“privatize state-owned enterprises including all four government-owned refineries

and liberalize the downstream sector of the petroleum industry”.

At the time, Atiku had said “I swear, even if they’re going to kill me, I will privatize NNPC”.

His adversaries quickly jumped on the statement saying Atiku had planned to sell the state-owned company and refineries to his cronies.

Bismark Rewane, the Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company in Lagos had queried Atiku’s plan saying

“I agree that it should be privatized, but selling to whom?”

a statement the All Progressives Congress echoed throughout the campaigns.

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